A Day in the Life of Hibari Kyouya
by readerofasaph
Summary: In which Mukuro baits Hibari, Hibari bites hundreds to death, and Tsuna is Tsuna. Character study/vignette.


"I should like to possess his body." The figure smiled gently. Two eyes (one blue, one red) watched carefully for a reaction.

Hibari Kyouya waited. Rokudo Mukuro's desires meant nothing to him, and they both knew it.

"His target is the Vongola," continued the other man. "He has the means to seriously harm Tsuna, should he wish to do so."

Meaningless statements again. "Can he fight?"

The smile was broader and more malicious now. "About Yamamoto's level."

"I see. Well, I'll bite him to death if I see him." Hibari checked his wristwatch.

Mukuro shrugged, but looked satisfied, and then faded away. Only Chrome remained, blinking as she came back to her own body. Hibari ignored her and walked off. That conversation had nearly thrown him off-schedule.

#

If he thought about it he could still remember the weight of Mukuro's heel bearing down on his body, crushing him, the sounds of breaking bone; the simple, detached pleasure of the other man as he leaned down and slowly, languorously bent limbs to their snapping point. Most of the time Hibari chose not to think about it; it was almost a subconscious decision. What was past was irrelevant. Revenge was for petty herbivores.

Still, if he allowed that memory of being weak to surface—

There were delinquents gathered at the gates of Namimori High when he arrived. Not peculiar in itself, but peculiar for a school morning. Usually they liked to wait until after dark, when there would be no outside interference and they could gang up on Hibari as they pleased (which suited Hibari just fine, since that meant he could fight them all by himself. Of course, fighting in daylight wasn't bad either).

This group was unusual in the timing of its attack. At some point it occurred to him, as he whirled with his tonfas and began inflicting bruises and fractured cheekbones, that his opponents also seemed unusual in another sense. They were older, somewhat better-dressed than your typical high school gang. As a bonus, they also fought better.

Not that it really mattered. They were in Namimori, they were gathered in a herd as if they were grass-eating creatures, and he felt like biting them to death.

About two minutes had passed, and he'd taken out about a dozen men, when he saw one of them snake past him and out the school gate. This man moved faster than the others, and had managed to stay at the periphery of the brawl so that Hibari's attacks had missed him. He ran out onto the road now, gaze intent on something, and it was then that Hibari noticed Tsuna and his classmates, who just coming up the sidewalk.

The man lifted a gun and aimed it at Tsuna--

-- Gokudera double-bombed him, just as Hibari finished off the remaining delinquents with one outward sweep of his left tonfa, and that was the end of it.

"You beat me to it," said Yamamoto pleasantly, lowering his baseball bat, but he looked irked at having his fun taken away from him.

Gokudera smirked, looking immeasurably pleased at having protected the Tenth. Tsuna was wearing a pained _what-not-again_ expression.

The school bell rang. Hibari was about to say, "Go to class or I'll bite you to death," but they'd already run off, Tsuna and Yamamoto waving at him as they disappeared indoors.

#

In the end he had to go look up the man Mukuro had mentioned, simply because it was the same man who was disturbing the peace of Namimori, as confirmed by a cursory search of the wallets on the fallen intruders. Hibari added the money he'd pocketed from them to the Disciplinary Committee budget and then did some computer hacking. The mobster in question specialised in drug smuggling; more a petty crime lord than a true mafioso. That information didn't interest Hibari much. He searched for the location of the mobster's headquarters; it was in Tokyo, but it was a fair distance from Namimori. It would take up his entire evening, getting there and back. The mobster had better be as strong as Mukuro had promised, or else Hibari was going to be pissed off.

He set off, briefly considering sending a message to Tetsuya via Hibird, but rejecting the idea within moments. If he started doing this kind of thing people would start expecting it of him. And Tetsuya already knew to keep Namimori secure when Hibari wasn't around.

It took him an hour on foot. It was a western-style mansion with a large compound and a security booth on the other side of the spiked metalwork gate. Hibari leaped across easily and landed on the inside. The security guard gaped at him through the window of the booth, and said, "Just _who_ are you--"

"I'm here to bite you to death," Hibari said, and knocked him unconscious just as a screeching alarm went off and men began pouring out of the doors of the mansion. There were hundreds and hundreds of them. It would have looked ridiculous even next to Dino's entourage. It wasn't so much a herd as it was a swarm. Of houseflies.

Well, he'd swat them.

For many minutes – he always lost track of time during fights - there was nothing but movement and the impact of wood on flesh. His blood was singing.

Eventually he made it to the doors of the mansion, a wake of bodies behind him. Inside, there were more and more defenders. Several bullets grazed him but missed; he took the gunmen down without stopping to think. Somebody rushed at him with a hunting knife; he broke that person's nose and smashed someone else's ribs in one swift movement. He proceeded like this through the entrance hall and then a corridor; up one winding staircase and through what appeared to be a library. Some of the defenders might have been decoys to lead him away from the boss but it didn't really bother him either way. He'd take them all down regardless.

Finally there was an eerie silence in the building; there was no one left except the bodies of the unconscious, slumped against walls, draped across banisters, lying crookedly in puddles of their own blood. Some of the men had run away.

Hibari stepped across the the battlefield of the fallen. He walked past beautiful furnishings and unbeautiful, wounded bodyguards. One of them raised a pistol and tried to shoot him in the leg; Hibari kicked it out of his hand.

He'd just crossed a carpeted landing and was about to keep searching when his senses pricked up; there was a bristly unpleasantness all through his body.

He knew that feeling. It was illusion.

Hibari strode over to the nearest door and opened it.

An European man in an expensive suit walked out, holding a slender trident. One eye was red and the other blue. He smiled condescendingly when he saw Hibari.

"How lovely to meet you, Hibari-san," he said. "I must congratulate you on getting this far."

Mukuro had gotten here first. Hibari suppressed the sudden, overwhelming flare of _frustration_, at being deprived of the fight he'd been looking forward to.

He raised his tonfa. "I told you this morning," he said, "If I saw this man, I'd bite him to death."

Mukuro smiled and lifted his trident – that was an illusion too, Hibari could feel it. Hibari shifted into position, readying his limbs to _strike_--

A sudden blurring of motion, and suddenly Yamamoto was standing between the two of them. Smiling cheerfully, with his bamboo sword held ready to defend. Hibari blinked, and turned.

Tsuna was making his way up the stairs, Gokudera and the baby with him. The happy-go-lucky boxing club member followed behind them. Even the bushy-haired cow-skinned child was there. It was the entire herd. Hibari felt an unhappy, claustrophobic feeling rising up within him.

"You're all right!" Tsuna said, coming closer – though not too close. He'd perfected it by now, the art of giving Hibari just enough personal space. "Tetsuya said you were missing, I was really worried – and Mukuro!" He turned, barely seeming to notice that Mukuro was in a body that was neither his own or Chrome's. "I didn't expect to see you here."

The remainder of Tsuna's coterie crowded around, making varied and largely senseless noises. "If you hadn't gotten lost, octopus head, we could have helped as well!" - "Shut _up_, you lawn head, it's not like you can read a map." - "Lambo wants to PLAY TOOOOO!" --

There was nothing for it but to lower his weapons. Mukuro's trident disappeared, and Yamamoto, sensing the dissipating threat, sheathed Shigure Kintoki.

Within about five minutes the sheer amount of _socialness_ overwhelmed Hibari so much that he bit them all to death (Reborn excepted; and Mukuro had already disappeared with his latest addition to his body collection) and walked home by himself.

#

And that was the way it went every time, really. Whenever he thought he'd finally bite that illusion-user to death, chance or coincidence or Tsuna happened along to interrupt. It didn't help that Mukuro seemed to be enjoying the delays and possibly was the cause of some of them.

He'd keep waiting. Self-control was tiresome – but as Reborn or Dino would say, it just might be more fun that way. As long as he kept watching that strange, evolving herbivore that was Tsuna, Mukuro would be there, too, and their paths would cross again.

Hibari would even the score. Better – he would _settle_ it.


End file.
